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Chamonix

An historic ski and climbing town on the picturesque side of Mont Blanc, by the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel. Chamonix offers the world's greatest lift-served vertical drop. Away from the slopes it is very lively all year round with numerous bars and restaurants.

One of the few serious contenders for the title of "World's Most Famous Ski Resort", Chamonix Mont Blanc (as the resort prefers to be known) has the world's biggest lift-served skiable vertical drop of 2807 metres ( 9209 feet ), one of the world's longest runs through the Vallée Blanche at 22 km ( 13.7 miles ) and staged the World's first Winter Olympics in 1924. Beyond these spectacular statistics is Chamonix's relatively undisputed status as the world's tough mountain sports capital, the subject of endless ski magazine reports each season from editors wishing to prove they descended between the glacial crevasses and lived to tell the tale!

For lesser mortals there are plenty of on-piste kilometres to soak up, all dominated by the spectacular scenery of Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak (and Europe's second highest after Mt Elbrus in Russia, although some dispute whether Elbrus is in Europe).

Chamonix's history has been traced to Bronze Age times and its current status was confirmed in a report as far back as 1751 when the locals were described as "the most uncompromising men in Europe". Ten years before that Englishmen William Windham and Richard Pococke had been on the first recorded tourist trip, reaching the Mer de Glace.

The first skis in the valley were spotted in 1893 and by 1907 one of the world first cable cars, 'Les Glaciers' was in operation (since removed). Six more were to follow between 1927 and 1963. The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened a few years later ensuring first rate access infrastructure in to the future. Chamonix Mont Blanc itself is a lively town with its own character, not just one created every winter season and reinvented every summer. That character reflects the attitude of its residents and of most visitors - a true love of the mountains.

Resort Runs

General Mountain Information:

Chamonix is a name synonymous with the best and most challenging in mountain sports world-wide and attracts the best practitioners of skiing, snowboarding, climbing and other disciplines each season. It attracts an even greater number of 'wannabes'. However, the resort is keen to point out that you don't have to 'live for skiing' to enjoy what Chamonix has to offer: there are pisted trails for all standards.

Until 1996 Chamonix was one of the few remaining resorts to offer separate passes for different sectors of its skiing, but no whole-resort pass, unless you purchased the huge "Skipass Mont-Blanc" covering well over 230 lifts in a dozen or so neighbouring ski areas. This changed with the introduction of a range of 'Chamski' passes carefully tailored after extensive research to meet the needs of the diverse winter sports market. The basic 6 day pass includes a day over in Courmayeur, normally subject to a supplement, and two trips on the high Grands Montets lifts, again usually charged at an additional fee.

The Grand Montets is a major part of Chamonix's reputation as a serious skier's resort, and thankfully all the lift installations in the area are currently being drastically improved, with capacity on the Bochard gondola, for example, increased from 1200 to 3000 skiers per hours, dramatically reducing and often eliminating lift lines. The skiable descent possible is from 3275 metres to 1230 metres and the world's record vertical in one day was set here by Canadian Mark Jones, clocking up 51 descents - a vertical of 64,000 metres (210,000 feet).

Of the other famous sectors, L'Aiguille du Midi is perhaps the most legendary, with the famous 22km off-piste descent through La Vallée Blanche (take a guide!). Finally mention must be made of historic Le Brévent, where Chamonix's and one of the Alps' first real ski lifts was installed. The descent there is around 1500m.

Altitude - Top Lift:

3842m

Altitude - Bottom Lift:

1035m

Vertical Drop:

2807m

Glacier:

Yes

Snowmaking Cover:

15%

Resort Uplift

Uplift:

54,660 people per hour

Number of Lifts:

47

Number of High Capacity Lifts:

13

Number of Chair Lifts:

16

Number of Surface Lifts:

16

Mountain Facilities

Snowboard Information:

As with skiing, Chamonix is the world capital for serious boarders and, after introducing the world's first monoski in 1977, it was fitting that Europe's first 'board carved its way down the slopes of Chamonix in 1981 beneath the feet of Australian Paul Loxton. Rapidly finding favour, boards were soon descending slopes previously rated 'impossible' including 60 degree gullies.
Bruno Gouvy 'boarded the famous Alpine trilogy of Matterhorn-Eiger-Grandes Jorasses in 1988 before taking on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, the Aiguille Verte and the north face of Les Drus.
Today France continues to push the boundaries of the sport, producing world champions like Jean-Baptiste Charlet (1994) and Karine Ruby (winner of a snowboarding gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics), as well as Arno Adam ( ski extreme world champion).
Chamonix's Snow Park, sponsored by Salomon and staging numerous competitions, is situated on Les Grands Montets.

In order to guarantee safe conditions for all competitors, event organizers have decided to reschedule the competition to take place alongside the second stop of the FWT.
After careful assessment, local guides and event organisers have determined that due to s

Steep powder slopes, spectacular off-piste runs, and awe-inspiring drops from huge cliffs: since 2008, the world’s leading freeride skiers and snowboarders have fought for the World Championship titles of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) every year. Delivering unforgettable images and top-notch athletic performances, the tour has become a key part...

Recently Added

Hemel are currently running an offer at The Snow Centre called Ski for Free to encourage more people to invite their friends and family to learn to ski.
The way the offer works is that if someone who can ski or snowboard gets their friend/family member to book onto a Beginner Group Lesson they can have a 2 Hour Lift Pass for free at the same time.

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Blue skies, high temperatures and a festival atmosphere were the perfect ingredients for a great contest in the almighty Laax halfpipe.

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Billy has accepted an invitation to attend SnowFest, Ski-Scotland’s popular snow fun festival and the festival’s timings have been tweaked to fit with Billy’s tight-packed competition and training schedule.

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For more than 25 years, The BRITS has been nurturing freest